SLAVERY
798
SLAVERY
ject, " It was," says M. Guizot, " by puttini; an end to the cruel institution of slavery that Christianity extend- ed its mild intlucnce to the practice of war; and that barbarous art. softened by its humane spirit, ceased to be so destructive" (Milman's Gibbon, i, 61). " It is not," says Robertson, " the authority of any single detacheil precept in the Gospel, but the spirit and genius of tlie Christian religion, more powerful than any particular command, which has abolished the practice of slavery throughout the world." Although, even in the raost corrupt times of the Church, the operation of Christian principles tended to this benevolent object, they unfort- unately did not prevent the revival of slavery in the European settlements in the IGth and 17th centuries, together with that nefarious traffic the suppression of which has rendered the name of Wilberforce forever illustrious. Modern servitude had all the characteristic evils of the Roman, except, perhaps, the uncontrolled power of life and death, while it was destitute of that redeeming quality to which we have referred, its ten- dency being to perpetuate the condition of slavery. It has also been supposed to have introduced the unfortu- nate prejudice of color, which was unknown to the an- cients (Linstant, Essui [1841]). It was the benevolent wish of the philosophic Herder {f/islo)\i/ of Man [1788]) that the time might come "when we shall look back with as much compassion on our inhuman traffic in ne- groes as on the ancient Roman slavery or Spartan hel- ots." This is now legally, if not actually, the case in all civilized countries. See Si^averv, Modkhn.
III. Kthieal Comidei-ations. — These have been inci- dentally touched upon in the foregoing discussion ; but their importance in connection with the occurrence of slaver}' in the Bible requires a fuller notice, especially as it has been boldly claimed that the above facts justi- fy the detention of human beings in menial servitude.
1. The circumstances of patriarchal slavery were so very different from those of modern times that no argu- n)ent in this regard can fairly be drawn from a com- parison of the two. It is obvious, for example, that if Abraham's "servants" had chosen to run away, there was no power by which they could have been compelled to return. But even if there had been, and if their state could be proved to be ever so severe, there is no evidence that this condition of society had the approval, much less the authority, of God, either in its institution or its continuance. There were many social usages in those days which were only tolerated for a time, until a bet- ter economy should supervene.
2. This last consideration likewise applies, in part, to the whole system of .Jewish slavery. But we are not left to this mode of vindicating Mosaism on the point in question. The moral law is a revelation of great principles. It reijuires supreme love to God and univer- sal love among men ; and whatever is incompatible with the exercise of that love is strictly forbidden and con- demned. Hence, immediately after the giving of the law at Sinai, as if to guard against all slavery and slave- trading on the part of the Israelites, God promulgated this ordinance: "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely be put to death" (Exod. xxi, Hi; Deut. xxiv, 7). The crime is stated iu its threefold form — mau-x/niliix/, sell- ing, and holilinfi — the penalty for either of which was deutfi. The law ptniished the stealing of mere property by enforcing restitution; in some cases twofold, in oth- ers fivefold (Exod. xxii, 14). When property was sto- len the legal penalty was compensation to the person injured; but when a man was stolen no proi)erty com- pensation was allowed : <leath was intlicled, and the guilty oflchder paid the forfeit of his life for his trans- gression, (iod thereby declaring the infinite dignity and worth of man and the inviolability of his person. The reason of tliis may be found in the great fact that God created man in his own image ((ieu. i, '20-28) — a high distinction, more than once repeated with great solem- nity (v, 1 ; ix, G). Such was the operation of this law,
and the obedience paid to it, that we have not the re- motest hint that the sale and purchase of slaves ever occurred among the Israelites. The cities of Judiea were not, like the cities of Greece and Rome, slave-mar- kets, nor were there found throughout all its coasts either helots or slaves.
3. It has been made a question whether servitude, even of the modified kind described in the Old Test., existed in Palestine in the days of our Lord. There is some reason to believe that after the return from Babylon the system gradually lost ground and disap- peared. Certainly there is nothing in the (iospel his- tory to indicate the existence of what could with any propriety be called slavery. It admits of no doubt, however, that slavery of the most obnoxious type did prevail in Italy and Greece and Asia jMinor; and it has been argued that since the apostles did not every- where openly denounce it, therefore it cannot be viewed as inconsistent with the principles of the Gospel. But there is a wide, unbridged interval here between the premises and the conclusion. The whole spirit and pre- cepts of Christianity are quite opposed to the idea of the subjugation of one man to the arbitrary will of an- other. The mutual love which it enjoins, the brother- hood of believers which it establishes?, the golden rule of doing to others as we would have them do to us, the model of self-sacrificing love exhibited by the blessed Saviour himself, are all utterly repugnant to the prac- tice of stealing men, buying and selling them, and hold- ing them to enforced labor; and accordingly it has ever been found that just in proportion to the footing which the Gospel has obtained in any country tlie system of slaverj' has declined and in the end died out. This un- just system has its root in the evil passions of depraved human nature, and in certain states of society it flour- ishes ; but the moral and spiritual renovation effected by the merciful religion of Jesus gradually brings a withering blight upon it which ultimately quite de- stroys it.